1. The map
Two measured grids, then three layers for the German-speaking market. The upper grid shows the United States in dollars per gallon, the second the EU-27 in euros per 1,000 litres. The units are deliberately not converted into one another, because any conversion drags in an exchange rate that moves daily and blurs the price difference you actually came for.
Below them sit the national prices for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a supply-route map of all 32 regions in those three countries, and the Rhine gauge at Kaub. Hatched tiles mean not surveyed, never cheap and never expensive.
These are grid cartograms rather than geographic maps, on purpose. The most expensive US states are Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which are also the smallest; on an area-true map they would be a few pixels while unsurveyed Texas filled a sixth of the frame. A grid gives every area the same area. The side effect is that the page loads with no tile server, no geodata and no third-party host that would see a visitor's IP address.
2. Where the numbers come from
Every automatically fetched source here is public and cleared for reuse with attribution. No figure comes from an endpoint whose operator forbids automated access.
| Layer | Source | Resolution | Published | Fetched |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | U.S. Energy Information Administration, State Heating Oil and Propane Program | 21 states, 6 PADD regions | weekly, October to March only | daily |
| EU-27 | European Commission, Weekly Oil Bulletin, "Heating gas oil" line | per member state | weekly, Thursdays | daily |
| Switzerland | cited portal value with date and delivery volume | national | irregular | by hand, every 14 days |
| Supply routes | refinery, port and waterway geography | 32 regions across DACH | rarely changes | as needed |
| Rhine gauge | PEGELONLINE, German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration | Kaub gauge, Rhine km 546 | continuous | daily |
| Daily benchmark | Brent quotation and NY Harbor heating oil spot | global | every trading day | daily |
The summer gap. The EIA collects residential heating oil prices during the heating season only. From April through September there are no new readings. During that stretch the US grid shows the last value of the season just ended, clearly marked, and the New York quotation fills the gap with a market price that runs all year. The first new consumer reading of the 2026/27 season is expected in early October.
3. Germany, Austria and Switzerland: routes, not prices
The regional map colours supply routes, not prices, because nobody publishes regional heating oil prices in these three countries for free. That is a deliberate choice rather than a workaround. A map that writes numbers into federal states has estimated them, and usually does not say so.
What can be documented is the geography: where refineries stand, where seaports lie, which rivers carry tanker barges, and where a region depends on lorries and rail tank cars. That yields four tiers, from short to long: seaport, inland waterway, pipeline or refinery, road and rail.
The picture is starkest outside Germany. Austria has exactly one refinery, OMV Schwechat east of Vienna, fed by the Adria-Wien and Transalpine pipelines; six of its nine states have neither a refinery nor navigable supply. Switzerland has exactly one left, Cressier in the canton of Neuchatel, since Collombey closed, and its main terminal is the Rhine port complex at Basel.
Which is why the Rhine gauge at Kaub sits on this page. At Rhine kilometre 546 it is the mark inland shipping uses to decide how heavily a tanker barge may be loaded. When the water falls, barges run part-loaded, freight rates climb, and low-water surcharges land directly in the price per litre across North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, the Saarland, and along the Upper Rhine as far as Basel. It is the only figure on this page that changes by the hour, it is free and official, and it leads the heating oil price along the Rhine. The marks at 40, 150 and 640 centimetres are not statutory thresholds; they are the points at which shipping companies change their behaviour.
4. Why there is no postcode map for the DACH region
Because heating oil carries no reporting duty, while petrol and diesel do. That is the whole difference, and it is written into law. For motor fuels the German Federal Cartel Office runs a market transparency unit: filling stations must report price changes, and approved consumer information services may pass the data on. That is why fuel price apps exist. Nothing comparable exists for heating oil. No dealer has to report a price to anyone.
- Official statistics. The German and Austrian statistical offices carry heating oil in the consumer price index, as do the state statistical offices. That is an index, monthly, at national or state level.
- The EU bulletin. Real prices in euros, weekly, but one number per member state. Switzerland does not appear at all, not being an EU member.
- The comparison portals. They hold the data, regionally resolved and current to the day. And they protect it: the robots.txt of the large German providers blocks their JSON and chart endpoints, and another blocks its API file except for a handful of cleared partner IDs. Unofficial scripts that get round this circulate online. This site uses none of them.
That leaves the clean route: apply for a partner interface and take the data with permission. That is in progress and has a lead time. Until then this page would rather show a documented national figure and a documented supply structure than an invented regional price.
5. Limits of this map
- No dealer price. Every figure is an average across a country or an area. A concrete quote can deviate substantially in either direction.
- The regional map contains no prices. It classifies supply routes. If you want a number for your federal state, it is not here, deliberately.
- No forecast. The Rhine gauge and the benchmark hint at a direction and nothing more.
- Unequal freshness side by side. In summer a March figure in the US grid sits next to an EU figure from last week. Both carry their date.
- Units. Dollars per gallon, euros per 1,000 litres and francs per 100 litres can be converted, but the result hangs on the day's rate. The page deliberately does not convert.
6. Frequently asked questions
Why do heating oil prices rise when crude barely moves?
Because a transport leg sits between the refinery and the tank. When the Rhine falls, barges load less and charge more; below roughly 40 centimetres at the Kaub gauge many stop sailing altogether. The surcharge then hits the regions along the Rhine corridor while Brent stays put. In September 2026 Kaub dropped below its 2018 record low and German bulletin prices rose by more than ten percent within a week. That is why the gauge sits directly below the regional maps on this page.
Can I see the heating oil price for my postcode here?
No, and no free source can do that for Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Motor fuels carry a statutory reporting duty; heating oil does not. The only parties holding regional daily prices are the comparison portals, and they block automated access to their data. This map therefore shows national figures and supply routes, and says so.
Why are there no US prices in summer?
The US energy agency collects residential heating oil prices during the heating season only, October through March. From April to September there are no new readings. During that period the map shows the last value of the season just ended and marks it as such. The first new reading of the 2026/27 season is expected in early October 2026.
Why are Texas, California and Florida missing?
Because almost nobody heats with oil there, so nothing is surveyed. Of the 4.79 million oil-heated households in the United States, 82 per cent are in the Northeast. The survey covers exactly the areas where heating oil matters: New England, the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest.
Why does a river gauge appear on a price page?
Because it moves the price. The Kaub gauge at Rhine kilometre 546 governs how heavily tanker barges may be loaded on the Middle Rhine. At low water they run part-loaded, freight rates rise, and low-water surcharges land in the price per litre. For several German states and for the Rhine ports at Basel that is a price factor entirely independent of crude.
Why is Switzerland shown separately?
Because it does not appear in the automated source. The Weekly Oil Bulletin covers EU member states, and Switzerland is not one. No free Swiss price API exists; the available official figures are an index or monthly averages with no export path. The figure shown is a single cited portal value carrying its date and delivery volume, refreshed by hand every two weeks.
Can I switch between the map and the tile grid?
Yes, two buttons sit above each map. The map shows real outlines; the tile grid gives every area the same room. The grid is not decoration but a necessity: on the map, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware overlap into a knot in the US Northeast, and those are the most expensive areas. The same goes for Malta, Luxembourg and Cyprus in Europe. Neither view uses a map tile server; the outlines are vector data inside the page itself, so no visitor IP reaches a third-party host.